Rudolf Steiner Archive & e.Lib Document

Between Death and Rebirth

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Between Death and Rebirth

Rudolf Steiner Archive Document

Lectures Section

Translated by E. H. Goddard and Dorothy S. Osmond
from shorthand reports unrevised by the lecturer. The original
texts of the lectures are contained in the series of 10 lectures
entitled Life between Death and a New Birth in Relation to Cosmic
Facts, in German, Das Leben Zwischen dem Tode und der Neuen Geburt
Im Verhaeltnis Zu Den Kosmischen Tatsachen in the Complete Edition
of Rudolf Steiner's works. (No. 141 in the Bibliographical Survey,
1961). Published here with the kind permission of the Rudolf Steiner
Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach, Switzerland.

By Rudolf Steiner

Bn/GA 141

Translated by E. H. Goddard and Dorothy S. Osmond
from shorthand reports unrevised by the
lecturer. The original texts of the lectures are contained in the
series of 10 lectures entitled Life between Death and a New Birth
in Relation to Cosmic Facts, in German, Das Leben Zwischen dem
Tode und der Neuen Geburt Im Verhaeltnis Zu Den Kosmischen Tatsachen
in the Complete Edition of Rudolf Steiner's works. (No. 141 in
the Bibliographical Survey, 1961).

Published here with the kind permission of the Rudolf
Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach, Switzerland.

All the forces of the soul must be activated if the essence of
Anthroposophy is to be grasped. Subjects must be studied from
constantly new sides. Since the last third of the nineteenth century
the soul need only be duly prepared and revelations will flow from
the spiritual world. Activity in the physical world, quietude in the
spiritual world. Since 1899, spiritual influences must take effect
inwardly instead of being occasioned by outer events. These lectures
will deal chiefly with the life after death when the Kamaloka period
is over. After death relationships between individuals continue as
they were during life on Earth. Homer's seership. Michelangelo and
the Medici tombs in Florence. Our attitude to spiritual knowledge can
establish the seeds of a true morality. Companionship or isolation in
the planetary spheres after death depend upon moral and religious
attitudes of soul in earthly life. For karmic adjustments, return
into the physical body is essential.

Consciousness of the ‘I’ acquired as the
result of contacts and collisions with the external world and with
the body when waking from sleep. Between birth and death a human
being may reduce the value of his ‘I’ as the result of
causing suffering to others. Effects of the destruction thus caused
remain in his astral, etheric and physical bodies; the forces able to
repair the damage to these sheaths cannot be drawn from the Earth but
only from the planetary spheres after death. Particular qualities
acquired on Earth determine whether companionship or isolation will
be experienced by the soul after death when passing through the
spheres of Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. Experiences
during Initiation closely akin to those undergone during the life
after death. Understanding of every human soul without distinction of
creed necessary for Initiation as it is in the Sun sphere. The
meeting between Abraham and Melchizedek contains a deep secret of the
evolution of humanity. The distinction between Christianity and other
faiths. The Mystery of Golgotha was fulfilled for all men, not only
for those who call themselves Christians. “Ye shall be as
Gods” — difference in implications of these words if uttered
by Lucifer or Christ. Forces needed for renewal of the etheric body in
the next incarnation must be drawn from the Sun sphere, for renewal
of the astral body from the other planetary spheres.

Relationships established during existence on Earth cannot, to begin
with, be changed during the life after death. From the possible suffering
caused by this realisation the power is acquired to change conditions
in later karma. Those living on Earth are able to have a great
influence on those who have died. Reading to the dead. Opposition to
Anthroposophy in the upper consciousness may take the form of longing
for it in the subconsciousness. Necessity of mediation between the
physical world and the spiritual world. Possibilities which do not
become reality on the physical plane exist as forces and effects in
the spiritual world. Actual experiences are only a fractional part of
the possibilities. The purpose of Anthroposophy is fulfilled in the
creation of an actual link between the physical and spiritual worlds.
The relation of the soul to the body. Analogy of the plant and its
connection with the Sun. Man belongs to the Universe, not only to the
Earth. Only during the last four centuries has consciousness of this
connection been lost. The Christ Impulse imparts feeling of kinship
with the Macrocosm. A twelfth century allegory. Reference to
Chapter IV
in the book
Occult Science — an Outline.

After death the human being draws forces from the
stellar world to the extent to which he developed moral and religious
qualities during life on Earth. Man is not meant to witness what
happens to him during sleep, i.e. the restoration of forces used up
during waking life. Processes of cognition lie within the field of
man's consciousness but the life-giving process does not. The
expulsion from Paradise. The purpose of life between death and
rebirth is that forces may be drawn from the stellar world for
shaping the following incarnation. Difference between the life after
death and the condition of sleep is fundamentally one of
consciousness only. Direct astronomical vision in ancient Egypt but
no logical thinking. In the Graeco-Latin epoch there was only
remembrance of what had formerly been direct vision. By the time of
Copernicus men had eyes only for physical globes in space. Kepler's
spiritual insight into the connection of certain events with heavenly
constellations. Anthroposophy is a torch by which the spiritual world
is illumined for us from a certain time onwards during life after
death. Forces once drawn from the stellar worlds must now be drawn
from men's own souls. This is the mission of the Earth.

In our fifth post-Atlantean epoch the sixth is prepared
in the souls of men by increasing understanding of the Christ Impulse
and of the Mystery of the Holy Grail. The latter is connected with
the mission of Buddha in the Mars sphere referred to in the preceding
lecture. Of the members of man's being it is the ‘I’ or
Ego which, basically speaking, passes through all the periods of
existence between birth and death and death and rebirth. But this
‘I’ must not be confused with the ‘I’ recognised
in earthly life. The true ‘I’ is the actor in the processes of
learning to walk, to speak and to think. There is a natural
correspondence between the true form of man and those faculties. The
human form stems from the Spirits of Form. These Spirits are opposed
by backward Luciferic Spirits who suppress the consciousness proper
to the Ego. The bodily organs are pervaded by the Spirits of Form
quite differently in each case. Contrast between the head and the
rest of the physical body. At a certain stage of development,
physical mobility can be held still while complete mobility of the
corresponding etheric organs is maintained. Between death and rebirth
man experiences the higher ‘I’ of which he is unconscious
during earthly life between birth and death.

Cyclic seven-year periods in life. Coming of the second
teeth marks the culmination of the formative process which works from
within the human being. Growth, however, continues until checked by
forces working from outside (see diagram). The work of the
‘regular’ Hierarchies and of the Luciferic Beings belonging
to those Hierarchies. Essential changes take place in the course of time
both in life on Earth and after death. ‘Public Opinion’ and
its influence. St. Paul's profound esoteric knowledge exemplified in
his teaching of the ‘first Adam’ and the ‘second
Adam’. Progressive dimness of man's life of soul after death
until the Mystery of Golgotha when the new impulse was given to
spiritual life. The Baptism by John the Baptist and its effects. In
the life of soul men were under the leadership of the Third Hierarchy
to a far greater extent than was the case after the Mystery of
Golgotha. The power and influence of the Luciferic beings have no
significance in man's life after death. The effect of the Buddha's
influence in the Mars sphere (see Lecture Five). In the future it
will be characteristic of those who are to become spiritual leaders
on Earth that a fundamental change takes place in their whole
character when they have reached a certain age. This is the result of
the Buddha's influence in the Mars sphere during their life between
death and rebirth. Rosicrucianism has always recognised this.

The greatest mysteries of existence are within man
himself. The thoughts conceived by divine-spiritual Beings in the
past live on in the present mineral, plant and animal kingdoms, just
as our memory-pictures continue into our present life. With our
memory we grasp a tiny corner of world-creation, namely what has
passed over from creation into existence. From the viewpoint of sleep
we behold what is hidden from waking life. Results of destructive
processes during waking life are repaired during sleep. Processes of
destruction in the organism are the precondition of the life of soul.
Experiences during the life between death and the new birth. At a
certain point there is a reversal of vision. Everything that was
outside us in life on Earth becomes our inner world. Preparation of
the body of the future earthly existence. When the soul encounters in
the spiritual world that which bears a new life germinally within it,
this is an experience of the moment of the last death in reverse.
Vision of spiritual realities gradually lost by human souls in the
course of evolution. Men are now beginning to be interested only in
what is sub-sensory, e.g. vibrations, wave lengths, the working of
forces. The mission of Anthroposophy is to counter the withering of
man's inner spirituality.

Spiritual investigation discloses that the super-sensible
forces needed by man in order to mould his body and also his destiny
are received by him from the Beings of the Hierarchies whom he
contacts between death and rebirth. Rejection of spiritual ideas in
earthly life means loneliness and darkness in the spiritual world
after death, also inability to mould the physical organs efficiently
for the next incarnation. Individuals after death are approached by
Luciferic or Ahrimanic beings according to their attitude to
spiritual knowledge while on Earth. The power exercised by Ahrimanic
beings during a soul's life after death can be recognised in
characteristics of three successive incarnations. An example:
egotistic mysticism in one life, hypochondria in the next, defective
thinking in the third. Acting out of love rather than merely out of a
sense of duty enables contact to be made after death with spiritual
beings who send down to the physical world forces that promote
health. Life in the spiritual world depends upon the mode of our life
in the physical body on Earth. Relationship with the Buddha can be
established during the life between death and rebirth even if there
had been no contact in earthly life, but this remains an exceptional
case. Nothing can replace the significance of our connection with the
Earth. Words of Leonardo da Vinci. Anthroposophy can bridge the gulf
between the living and the dead.

Reference to the book
Theosophy,
Chapter III
on the Soul World, the Soul
in the Soul World after Death, the Spiritland, the Spirit in the
Spiritland after Death. These descriptions are more closely related
to inner conditions of the soul, whereas in the present
lecture-course the descriptions are of great cosmic conditions and
the functions of the planetary spheres. Experiences of the soul after
death in Kamaloka and final discarding of longings connected with
earthly life. Passage through the planetary spheres. Quotation from
the book
Theosophy
with special reference to experiences in
the Mars region and the mission of Buddha (Lecture Five). At the
beginning of the seventeenth century Brahmanism was absorbed into
Buddhism in the cultural life of India. Events on Earth are reflected
images of happenings in the Heavens. The fruits of the soul's
experiences beyond the Saturn sphere between death and rebirth make
progress of culture on Earth possible. The stream of spirituality
which has its centre of gravity in the Mystery of Golgotha comes from
Old Sun. The death on Golgotha was only seemingly a death; in reality
it was the birth of the Earth-Soul.